From παλαιστή to πῆχυς (Psalm 39:5, Matt 6:27, Luke 12:25)
Posted: September 15th, 2019, 2:50 pm
Before I start, allow me to say that I hope this post is in order, in accordance with B-Greek house rules, and that this is the right forum for it. If not, please feel free to move it or delete it.
NT translators and editors find it difficult to make up their minds about Jesus’ saying reported in Matt 6:27 and Luke 12:25:
τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν μεριμνῶν δύναται προσθεῖναι ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ πῆχυν ἕνα;
τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν μεριμνῶν δύναται ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ προσθεῖναι πῆχυν;
Adding a “cubit” to a “lifespan” evidently strikes them as a mixed metaphor to be avoided. Instead, they opt either for two periods of time, e.g. “Who can add an hour to his lifespan?” or two measurements of length, “Who can add a cubit to his stature?”
In this saying, however, there is a detectable echo of Psalm 39:5 (39:6 LXX): ἰδοὺ παλαιστὰς ἔθου τὰς ἡμέρας μου …
translating the Hebrew, הִנֵּה טְפָחוֹת נָתַתָּה יָמַי, “Behold, thou hast made my days a few handbreadths” (RSV).
The handbreadth, טפח (tefach) or παλαιστή, was one-sixth of a cubit, אמה (amah) or πῆχυς, at least in the Hellenistic period, though it may have been different in the Psalmist’s day, before the Hebrew weights and measures became aligned with those of Greece and Rome.
Two questions follow from this.
1. Is it reasonable to detect an echo of the Psalmist’s words in this saying of Jesus, or is that merely an illusion, a mirage?
2. If so, what can have happened to turn the Psalmist’s παλαιστή into the Evangelists’ πῆχυς ?
I feel reasonably confident that the answer to the first question is Yes, there is a connection, based on the fact that in the BSI Hebrew New Testament, the translators changed Jesus’ “cubit” to “handbreadth” (טפח ). I don’t know whether the BSI translators ever explained why they made that change, but I assume that their purpose can only have been to point to a connection between Jesus’ saying and the Psalmist’s words. (The older, nineteenth-century Delitzsch translation left the Evangelists’ “cubit” unchanged as אמה .)
Which brings us to the second question. How is the transformation to be explained? Needless to say, there are no variant readings of the Gospels in which παλαιστή appears in place of πῆχυς. So what linguistic or literary process can have been at work?
NT translators and editors find it difficult to make up their minds about Jesus’ saying reported in Matt 6:27 and Luke 12:25:
τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν μεριμνῶν δύναται προσθεῖναι ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ πῆχυν ἕνα;
τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν μεριμνῶν δύναται ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ προσθεῖναι πῆχυν;
Adding a “cubit” to a “lifespan” evidently strikes them as a mixed metaphor to be avoided. Instead, they opt either for two periods of time, e.g. “Who can add an hour to his lifespan?” or two measurements of length, “Who can add a cubit to his stature?”
In this saying, however, there is a detectable echo of Psalm 39:5 (39:6 LXX): ἰδοὺ παλαιστὰς ἔθου τὰς ἡμέρας μου …
translating the Hebrew, הִנֵּה טְפָחוֹת נָתַתָּה יָמַי, “Behold, thou hast made my days a few handbreadths” (RSV).
The handbreadth, טפח (tefach) or παλαιστή, was one-sixth of a cubit, אמה (amah) or πῆχυς, at least in the Hellenistic period, though it may have been different in the Psalmist’s day, before the Hebrew weights and measures became aligned with those of Greece and Rome.
Two questions follow from this.
1. Is it reasonable to detect an echo of the Psalmist’s words in this saying of Jesus, or is that merely an illusion, a mirage?
2. If so, what can have happened to turn the Psalmist’s παλαιστή into the Evangelists’ πῆχυς ?
I feel reasonably confident that the answer to the first question is Yes, there is a connection, based on the fact that in the BSI Hebrew New Testament, the translators changed Jesus’ “cubit” to “handbreadth” (טפח ). I don’t know whether the BSI translators ever explained why they made that change, but I assume that their purpose can only have been to point to a connection between Jesus’ saying and the Psalmist’s words. (The older, nineteenth-century Delitzsch translation left the Evangelists’ “cubit” unchanged as אמה .)
Which brings us to the second question. How is the transformation to be explained? Needless to say, there are no variant readings of the Gospels in which παλαιστή appears in place of πῆχυς. So what linguistic or literary process can have been at work?